The Rise and Fall of a Hero
by Xx Senshi of Ankoku xX
Summary: Second in the chain of my first series. Shadow and Kuki return for yet another adventure! When The evil Father plans to use Kuki as bait to lure Shadow, Shadow comes to face with the true nature of what a hero must do; Sacrifice, R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1: Down but not out**

**Welcome again! If you haven't yet read my first story, you should so you can understand how Shadow and Kuki first met. I hope for you to read and review and share your input. Enjoy!**

After the victory against Eggman and Metal Sonic, Shadow the hedgehog lives a peaceful life. None of this wouldn't have been possible without the help of Numbuh 3 a.k.a. Kuki Sanban.

Shadow sat on the edge of a building remembering the good times he and Kuki shared, it's been a while since they saw each other. As well as Eggman hasn't been heard of ether. Kuki walked on the streets at night heading back to the tree house, she went to the candy store which now she's on her way back to the tree house. Thunder ripped through the clouds, and lightning cracked.

Rain was coming down hard, numbuh 3 started running as fast as she could. She was running through backyards of houses and she went running straight through a lane. She stopped dead in her tracks to see a group of older kids around thirteen they all had smug looks on their faces, she stepped back, but two more were behind her. "Well, what do we have here?'' one of them said she was starting to get worried.

One of them grabbed the bag of candy she was holding. Two of the bullies then pushed her to the ground. She only cried, they all laughed at her, until a silhouette landed in front of them and slowly got up. "You know stealing from people isn't right.'' the figure said. "What are you going to do about it then?'' one of the punks said. All of the punks charged forward toward the being, but he only smiled and grabbed one by the shirt collar and through him right through a fence, splintering it. He jumped over another and swung his leg low knocking him to the ground and picked him up, swung him around and tossed him at two more of the punks. They all ran away, Kuki's bag of candy was on the ground.

The figure walked over to it and picked it up. He walked over to her who was still on the ground she backed away from the dark outline of the person, but until he held out his hand it revealed a white glove. She gasped and looked up and when the lightning flashed she saw Shadow the Hedgehog standing before her.


	2. In Search for the Emeralds

**CHAPTER 2: In Search for the Emeralds**

**Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to the characters in this story. **

The two were walking down the street "Where have you been this whole time!'' kuki exclaimed throwing her hands in the air. He only grumbled "Don't give me that!'' she yelled again. "I've been well, nothing much happened over the days.'' he told her. "Yeah, but I was still worried about you.'' she replied in a sincere voice "I can tell.'' he mumbled. They were finally at the tree house "well we're here.'' was all shadow said. She hugged him quickly and tightly "I'm glad your back.'' she said happily. "I'll see you tomorrow.'' he said. They both waved goodbye to each other and went their separate ways.

The following day The Delightful Children were just having a talk with Father which just ended. Father looked at his TV screen and a picture of Shadow appeared on it. "This hedgehog is very powerful, he must be destroyed.'' he said clenching his fist. "His relationship with Numbuh 3 could be his Achilles heel and a very strong advantage to me.'' he said in a evil tone. He then held a red chaos emerald in his hand and started to laugh maniacally. Shadow was jumping across buildings of the city near Sector V's neighborhood. "I sense Chaos Emeralds here, all seven of them scattered.'' he thought to himself, as he the dashed down a building in search for the first chaos emerald.

Kuki was skipping happily on the sidewalk until she stopped to see Shadow leaping across houses of the neighborhood and she decided to follow him. He stopped in a backyard and looked around and found the yellow chaos emerald, and he smiled and went off to find more. She saw him and kept following him, he was at the beach and went over to a rock lifted it and found the light blue chaos emerald, so now he had three: Green which he always carries, yellow, and light blue. He sped up a building in the city and stopped at the top and just rested. It took Numbuh 3 awhile to find him, knowing that he likes to go up to high places and just sit there. She found him standing with his arms crossed looking out to the land.

"Hey Shadow.'' she said simply, he looked over his shoulder then turned his head back straight like he didn't care. She walked over to him and stood next him. "Soooo, what have you been up to?'' she asked curiously. He huffed and put his hand in front of him and a bag appeared in his hand. Numbuh 3's mind started to wonder, he opened it and revealed the three chaos emeralds. "whoa pretty colors.'' she said, Shadow rolled his eyes and closed the bag and sealed it with a rope. "what are those again?'' she asked pointing to the bag "Chaos emeralds.'' he replied and looked down the building. "Where you going?'' she asked quickly he turned to her "To find the rest of the chaos emeralds.'' he said making it sound like it was going to be snap. "Can I come with you?'' she asked. He sighed and nodded. She smiled and he picked her up in his arms and sped down the building in search for the chaos emeralds.


	3. Suspicion Leads to Trouble

**CHAPTER 3 **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this story, :(  
**

They were both founded walking in a forest, she was skipping happily and decided to start singing "La la la la.'' which annoyed shadow and made him slap himself in the head. He stopped and she bumped into him, "Why did you-'' but he covered her mouth with his hand and said "Be quiet.'' and he grabbed her hand and started running to the end of the forest and he picked her up in his arms and sped out of the forest to a large mansion, the problem it was the delightful children's mansion.

"Why are we here, this is not the best place to start a fight.'' she told him. "I sense a chaos emerald in there.'' he replied, looking over to it "Oh yeah sure, you and your senses.'' she said shrugging. He looked at her angrily, then focused back on the mansion. He took her hand, and took out the green chaos emerald it glowed and they teleported into the mansion and they looked around to see they were in a hallway. Shadow looked both ways "Follow me.'' he said to her she nodded and followed him. They both were in Father's main hall with his chair at the end of the main hall. "I don't like this.'' she said sounding worried "Don't be nervous, I'm here with you.'' he said sounding reassuring.

When they got to his chair was the red chaos emerald sitting there, "This is too easy.'' shadow spoke picking it up. "Oh well lets just go.'' she told him. He agreed and they both made their way to the entrance when they were about to get out none other than Father appeared in front of them in a cloud of fire. "Well you must be Shadow, I've heard a lot about you.'' Shadow just cringed his eyes looking angry "Temper, temper shadow you just can't control it.'' Shadow was about to burst, but Kuki put her hand on his shoulder, he looked at her and he stood strong. "I don't like the fact that you steal things, especially when its MINE!!'' he yelled then launched a fireball at him, shadow saw it coming and picked up Kuki and jumped over it in an instance, and right over him. Shadow made a dash toward the door and kicked through it and used his incredible speed to make their getaway. Father just growled and he said "We'll meet again…except it will be your worst nightmare.'' The two were in front of the treehouse and now having four of the chaos emeralds and only three more left. "You did great back there.'' Kuki squealed happily and hugging Shadow. He however got use to hugs, since she was his best friend. They waved goodbye and both left, Shadow started to wonder what happens when he finds all the chaos emeralds? He ignored it and used amazing speed to explore the neighborhood and city for chaos emeralds.

The following day when Kuki woke up she got out of her pajamas and into her usual apparel she went to the TV and turned it on, she rubbed her eyes and kept flipping through channels she decided to have cereal to wake herself up. The news was on and when she walked pass the TV with her cereal she saw footage of what was of course shadow, but wearing his black cloak with the hood up. She walked past the TV and then widened her eyes to look at the TV and was of course shocked. The news reporter man was speaking about what happened, she turned up the volume and started to eat her cereal.

"Last night a cloaked figure was spotted using firearms to apprehend escaped prisoners who were most wanted. They were found tied with rope and all knocked out and severely beaten with gun wounds in the legs.'' Kuki was absolutely and utterly shocked of what shadow did, it was 50/50. One half capturing them, the other half is beating them to a pulp and shooting them in the legs. She was angry at him, but mostly wanted to know one question: Why?


	4. Emerald Hunt

**Chapter 4: Emerald Hunt **

**Disclaimer: I still do not own any of the characters portrayed in this story.**

She looked for all the common places for him, but nothing. She decided then to look at the top of the tree house and yes she found him there. He was laying down sleeping with a blanket over to him, she thought he looked cute, nonetheless he was in trouble alright. She shook him and he opened his eyes and quickly jumped up and held a gun in his hand, she gasped and stepped back. He sighed and dropped the gun, "What do you need?'' he asked sounding uninterested "I saw you on the news!'' she exclaimed "Are you happy or mad because of that?'' he asked she looked and just slapped her forehead, "Why did you do that last night?'' "Stopping those criminals, well they escaped jail and-'' she stopped then spoke again "And you beat them up and shot them!'' she yelled at him.

He hung his head low "Guns won't solve anything, they just kill and hurt people!'' she screamed with tears in her eyes and she quickly ran away and he put his hand out and lowered it, but he felt really disappointed in what he did. He looked out to think things over and figure out a way to say sorry to Kuki. During noon he went in the tree house and into her room. She had her face covered in her pillow "Uh Kuki?'' he said nervously. She lifted her head, but covered it in the pillow again. "Listen what I did was wrong, they were dangerous people and I couldn't let-'' he couldn't finish as she a pillow hit him in the face he held one finger up and was about to speak , but only another one hit him in the face "Kuki listen-'' he dodged another one. He jumped over to her, she only backed up but still looked angry at him.

"I'm here to apologize for what I did.'' he said to her. To her surprise he hugged her, she of course widened her eyes and returned the hug and cried into his shoulder, "please promise me to not make another sacrifice like that again.'' she said sobbing. He hesitated and replied with a "yes'' they both smiled at each other. "How about you help me find more emeralds?'' he asked her with a small smile she nodded so they both left to find more. Searching for chaos emeralds isn't a walk in the park, it's hard even for shadow. Once again they were in the forest, Kuki popped out of a bush and held the white chaos emerald in her palm, "Guess its not hard for her.'' he thought, as he walked over to her and she put it in the bag. Still searching went what you could call easy, the next one was the purple emerald which was nearby a waterfall.

Shadow spotted it and ran over to it and put it in the bag. Now having six of them only one remained: the blue chaos emerald. Having six was okay, but one was out there but where? The two of them decided to enjoy the scenic waterfall, shadow however felt this was way to easy. "I like waterfalls, don't you?'' she asked with a sweet tone he understood why she acted like this because that's how she was. Shadow heard a sound and he picked Kuki up and to the left to see an Eggman robot and five more rose next to it and from behind was Eggman in his hover ship looking smug.

"You have six emeralds already? I'm impressed now I'll just take them from you now.'' he snapped his fingers and the robots charged towards shadow so did he but only to strike his foot into the head of a robot, and fly through the smoke and he continued using his hovershoes and jumped down the waterfall, Kuki held onto the bag full of emeralds, shadow landed on a branch which was sticking out from the waterfall and he used it to leap very far he landed onto a flat grassland just what he needed. However the robots were catching up with him he caught a glimpse of the city of near the tree house, but must make it through the city's twist and turns to make it to the tree house in one piece they made to the center of the city which had four intersections, everyone in their cars stopped and got out to see a hedgehog and a girl in the middle. "Take the emeralds and get to the tree house.'' he said giving the bag to her. The robots landing behind him pointed their guns, Kuki started running as shadow made a M16 appear in his grasp he unloaded on the metallic menaces, but more came. One which had a drill on the nose of it and a rocket pack fired the missiles shadow didn't see it coming and it blew him back through a glass window at street level he got up and shook his head and a armored tank of Eggman's, with three cannons mounted on the front it fired its large round at shadow he used his chaos control, thing is he had enough power to use it without a chaos emerald and appeared behind the tank jumped on top of it and opened the hatch and made a C4 charge and activated it and dropped it in, he took a large back flip and saw it detonate exploding half the building as debris rained everywhere onto the street. He turned around to meet a large bulky robot with claw like arms they rotated and fired at him and exploded sending shadow into the air, but he landed on his feet. He dashed for it and had two desert eagles the large robot fired machine guns shadow slid under it and fired directly at its back. Shadow lunged to it and twisted its head off and threw it away. He used chaos control and teleported the limp body of the robot and dropped it on five robots, destroying them. More robots came and surrounded him. He got in a stance. His arms became showered with yellow glowing chaos energy. "Who's first?" he said, raising an eyebrow.


	5. Military Involvement

**Chapter 5: Military Involvement**

**DISCLAIMER: I claim no ownership of the characters depicted in this story. **

Kuki left the bag of emeralds in the tree house and when she looked at the city in the distance with smoke rising from it and heard explosions crack into the air. She gasped and once again started running again, except she thought to bring the emeralds and she did and made her way to the city. Shadow leaped back to his feet and looked to left and ran with robots firing machine guns leaving the path behind him and charged forward and dealt a punch in the robots head and grabbed the wreckage into a building exploding it sending chunks of bricks and shattered glass to the street.

The citizens were in chaos panicking in the streets many were injured and shadow saw this and he looked at his hand and said "What have I done.'' he said to himself. He was sent flying into a building wall and landed on his knees and looked up to see a large army of robots large and small surrounding him he used his chaos control and made fifty grenades appear in front of him. The ebony hedgehog proceeded by throwing his arms outward sending them flying into the robots exploding on impact, many of the robots were destroyed and cars were as well destroyed and crashed into building walls. Kuki was panting to see news helicopters fly over her toward the city. All she hoped was that shadow was giving it is his all, and that he was okay.

Shadow leapt through punching and denting robots in his path. He was breathing hard, but continued to fight. He jumped atop a hovering robot and struck his hand into its head and controlled it using its machine guns to rang bullets upon the robots below. Sparks were flying everywhere from the wreckage of robots. He jumped off the hover robot and kicked it into the side of a building and landed on the street and then no more came. He surveyed the area, people looked out to see him it was nothing like what they saw. Commotion was among the citizens he looked annoyed like they never seen a hedgehog take on a army of robot destroyers. Kuki pushed herself through the crowd she smiled to see him standing in the middle of the street debris littered everywhere, cars struck into the sides of buildings, scrap of the robots everywhere, the center of the city was absolutely a battlefield. Kuki walked and started to run to him, but stopped by military soldiers in jeeps stopped in front of her they grabbed her by the arms and took her away, "Shadow!!'' she yelled he started to go to her, but soldiers and M1A1 tanks flooded the area.

Military trucks dropped of more soldiers with M16's in their hands he didn't want to fight them enough trouble was caused. A jeep rolled in and the general, a grayed hair man, but looked feared, however shadow is one not to fear people. From behind was Father, shadow eyes widened. "I have something you want.'' he said taking out the last chaos emerald the blue one. Shadow stared at him angrily, "You shall be in prison for the rest of your life!" the general yelled "Prison? Are you sure you want to keep something this dangerous to the city still alive?'' Father replied to the generals statement.

"He shall be shot on the spot.'' the general ordered. Father did a small chuckle and the soldiers surrounded him, but shadow leaped up and dashed across the side of a building in search for Kuki. He landed to the street and found her in a jeep he jumped onto it and picked her up with the bag of emeralds, and jumped backwards. "You came back.'' she said "I'm always here for you.'' he told her. With this, the two made their getaway, but with the military hot on their heels, how far will they go to stop Shadow?


	6. One Final Task

_**CHAPTER SIX: ONE FINAL TASK**_

_**Disclaimer: Seriously, I do not own any of the characters in this story. **_

Shadow skated toward a group of soldiers and jumped up to see father talking to the general. "He wants this emerald to take over the world, with all of them he could-'' father stopped himself, looking at his empty palm to see that shadow grabbed it, now he had all seven of them. The general growled and took out his military phone "All units target has the emeralds intercept and retrieve the emeralds and destroy him afterwards.'' he ordered. Shadow used chaos control with the green emerald and made a small jet with a two seats in the front, shadow got in the pilot seat and Kuki sat next to him. He lifted off and behind him were three F-18's he was tired of them always being persistent. He pulled up and rotated the ship in a spin and got behind them and flew the opposite way. "Lost visual, repeat lost visual.'' the pilot said and the other two followed behind him. "That was close.'' Kuki said.

A missile struck the plane of theirs and the ship headed in a free fall. Shadow kicked open the window he picked kuki up with her holding the bag of emeralds "Whatever you do don't let go.'' he told her. They both were falling and they crashed into the ground, but shadow took the most of the pain. "We got him.'' the general said lowering the binoculars, father was with him and they were in a jeep heading towards him with tanks following. Shadow got up slowly and he looked for kuki, he spotted her except she wasn't moving he ran to her he shook her body, but she was limp. He lowered his head and a tear dropped to the ground. "He's still alive?'' the general said spotting him.

"Shoot at him!'' father ordered tanks fired as shots surrounded him the chaos emeralds lay scattered around him they glowed, Shadows eyes glowed red and a red aura outlined his body he turned around and sent a red chaos spear at one tank destroying it the general and father were stunned, the driver drove backwards and drove away as shadow jumped up and crunched a tank with his bare hands. He walked out of the fire angry as he can be, and followed father in the jeep.

Other mounted vehicles stood in shadows way and fired their machine guns, but had no effect he set a large chaos blast sending jeeps flying through the air crashing down to the ground. Shadow spotted two tanks he grabbed the barrel of one and it fired too late and ended up firing the tanks next to it. "Navy crew, fire now!'' he ordered. The shells from battleships sent toward shadow impacted the area around him, one round hit him, he however didn't care. "Nothing's working!'' the general shouted "Not everything sir, the bomb.'' he finished. The general looked at him. "Subs are waiting underwater we can lure him away from the city then destroy him.'' he told him. The General ordered the command sub to ready the Atomic bomb. Kuki woke up in a military infirmary tent, she looked around and exited it to see many wounded citizens. She had to find Shadow and stop his rampage from continuing.

He was at the docks and spotted the ships, "Shadow!'' kuki shouted he turned around, she ran over to him he took out his gun, she gasped. "You are not like this, shadow I know you wouldn't do this, you're my best friend and always there for me.'' he simply still had a angry face and the gun still aimed at her. "I love you shadow.'' she confessed . His eyes stopped glowing red and the aura disappeared they both ran to each other and hugged each other tightly. Soldiers soon surrounded them, Shadow stood in front of her, "I thought you told me he killed the girl?'' the general asked.

"It's a trick launch the missile!'' he exclaimed. "Soldiers stand down.'' the general ordered Father took the military phone and yelled "Launch the missile!'' the missile came out of the water and straight into the sky. The general looked at father and "That missile is locked to the hedgehog's current position, where's the hedgehog!?'' he yelled. Father turned to see shadow glaring at him 'Dang it.'' father said quietly and shadow came and knocked him out with a punch. Kuki walked to shadow and he looked at her and smiled a alarm then sounded, people gasped and started to gaze up to the missile. "When that missile hits….'' she hesitated "Everyone will die." she said sadly.

Shadow looked at everyone else and walked past kuki and turned around, the seven emeralds appeared around they started spinning around him fast and a bright yellow light flashed it dimmed and shadow was in his super form, all golden and at his peak of power. "I'm the only one who can stop it.'' he told kuki took a few steps forward then she fell to her knees and tears started to run down her cheeks, shadow walked over to her and helped her up, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep your promise, I'll miss you.'' he said. She hugged him tightly "You're the best shadow, and I'll always love you.'' she said between sobs he took a few steps back and looked up and launched himself into the air, the citizens looked on as he disappeared from sight. He found the missile in space coming down toward him, he remembered her words "Your there for me always and I'll always love you.'' He closed his eyes and collided with the missile and the huge explosion lit up into a giant fireball. The people below at the city saw it as the massive fire cloud was gone. It was bright, but dimmed away, "Lets go home.'' the general said quietly and his soldiers followed him. A bright star shined as kuki saw it he made the ultimate sacrifice to save the people of the city and protecting the one he actually cared about and loved.

_**1 Month later**_

The city in peace, in the city's park stood a metal statue of Shadow with his arms crossed there was a golden plaque on the front of the base of it, it read: "This statue is dedicated to Shadow the Hedgehog Hero of the this city and shall be remembered forever.'' Kuki was standing looking at it, from behind was the general he held a box in his hands. "Hey, we recovered this we found this on the ground.'' he said handing it to her, she opened it and it was one of shadows gold rings he wears on his wrist. She said nothing and looked at the statue again with a sad face and she left and went back to the tree house. In the state of Alaska a barren snow land a hand popped out of the ground, on the hand was a white glove with a golden ring on its wrist_._

_**Another story done. I'll probably post the first two chapters of the next story some time today. You know where to find them! Thanks for those who read and please! REVIEW! Peace!**_


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